The invention relates generally to an apparatus for feeding bar stock to a lathe and relates particularly to such an apparatus in which a longitudinal open section of a rod guide tube can be uncovered to permit the filling of the tube with a bar from the side and in which the apparatus has a plurality of such guide tubes for feeding a multi-spindle automatic lathe.
In known bar stock feeding apparatus for multi-spindle automatic lathes the opening and closing of a cover member of the longitudinally sectioned guide tubes is done by means of a large number of parts, such as for example levers, cams, shafts, and coupling elements. The known arrangements are very expensive and in practice have shown themselves to be subject to problems. Also, the known arrangements acts only on the two end of the often rather long guide tubes, so that a complete closing of the cover members along their entire length is not assured.
It is an object of the invention to provide an apparatus of the above-described type which with relatively few parts can assure a precise and secure closing of the guide tubes along their entire length.